A trio of bare-breasted women demonstrated outside the polling station at the Dante Alighieri school in Milan’s Via Scrosati. In a now-traditional gesture, three activists from the Femen group braved the cold and took off their tops to reveal the words “Basta Silvio” [No More Silvio] written on their torsos in red marker pen. The women were escorted away by officers of the DIGOS security police, who first wrestled them to the ground outside the school and then placed them under arrest. The activists, who resisted arrest, were taken to police headquarters.

FOREIGNERS – None of the three protesters is Italian. Two, Inna Shevchenko and Oksana Shachko, are from Ukraine and the other, Elvire Dupont, is from France. The Femen movement claimed responsibility for the protest on Facebook. The three activists have been charged with carrying out acts contrary to public decency and resisting a public official.

TOO FAR – “This is going too far”, was Silvio Berlusconi’s terse comment on the incident. “Anyone who thinks with intelligence and a brain can only vote one way and act accordingly”, said the People of Freedom (PDL) leader. “Then there are all those situations beyond intelligence that exist and about which we cannot do anything”.

PROTESTS FOR SILVIO’S GIRLFRIEND – Silvio Berlusconi’s girlfriend Francesca Pascale also faced protests in Fuorigrotta, Naples, at the Lala school polling station in Via Cariteo. Ms Pascale, who was carrying her toy dog in a bag, was with her father and sister when a passer-by snorted “shame” at her. Ms Pascale shouted back: “It’s the communists who shame Italy”.